


Was it worth it

by WritingPains



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers Family, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, BAMF Gamora (Marvel), BAMF Tony Stark, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Emotions, Fix-It of Sorts, Hurt Tony, Hurt Tony Stark, Kid Gamora (Marvel), Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, One Shot, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Soul Stone (Marvel), Spoilers, Tony Feels, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, Tony-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 14:45:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18741190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WritingPains/pseuds/WritingPains
Summary: **ENDGAME SPOILERS!!**Tony after Endgame.(Please don't read if you don't want spoilers).





	Was it worth it

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers, Spoilers, Spoilers
> 
>  
> 
> Please don't read if you don't want spoilers

_“Was it worth it?”_

Tony feels the absence of pain before anything else. A second ago, the entire right side of his body had been a searing mess of agony, but now he feels as though nothing ever happened. He feels lighter than he has in years, and there isn’t a single ache in his body.

“What?” he mutters, stupidly.

He sits up, rubbing his eyes to try and clear them. He seems to be in some kind of massive but shallow lake. It barely comes above his wrist. Above him, he can see the stars and galaxies. Around him, where there isn’t water, there’s grey land. It looks almost like fine sand. It reminds him of iron shavings.

Panic breezes over him, only allowing his breath to hitch before he feels calm again.

He’s not on the ship with Nebula. That was _years_ ago. No, this is somewhere new. Somewhere beautiful.

“Was it worth it?”

The voice snaps him out of his own mind. He twists around, the water he’s in not even rippling. He forgets to search for the sound and stares down at the ‘water’. He tests it, splashing his hand down, but it’s almost as if the water has taken on a solid form that fluidly shifts its shape around his hand.

“ _Was it worth it._ ”

“Yes.”

Tony finally focuses on the voice and his face twists, unable to hold back the pain.

“Nat?”

She looks young. Her red hair reaching past her shoulders, her skin soft and unblemished. She smiles, unbroken by years of smearing blood on her ledger. It’s refreshing, but it’s painful too.

“Tony.”

He jumps up, marvelling at how young he feels. His body doesn’t protest at the movement at all. He rushes to Nat and engulfs her in a hug, barely able to contain himself. He feels _giddy._

“It was worth it,” he re-states. “But…”

He turns around, surveys the area around him.

“Morgan.”

His whisper is aching, and Nat takes his hand and squeezes.

“She’ll be OK,” Nat promises. “Pepper, Rhodey, Happy, they’ll care for her. They’ll look after each other, and they’ll make sure Peter is OK too.”

Tony nods, but his heart hurts. He can’t hold back the tears. He tries to turn away. He doesn’t want Natasha to see him like this. In pain, vulnerable, fearful, but she takes his forearm and pulls him back into her embrace. He cries, and she lets him, no judgement. He needs this, needs to feel some kind of relief, even though it’ll be a long time before he’s over any of it.

“I’ve missed you,” Nat tells him.

“Everyone misses you.”

“I know.”

To anyone else, it would have sounded like she was acting a little self-involved, but Tony knows better.

“You’ve been watching?”

“As much as I can. I can only see those who are thinking about me. When our souls are connected.”

Tony nods, though with it comes a strange fear.

“Don’t even bother thinking about it, Tony,” Nat admonishes. “You’ll see. People think about you more than you think they do.”

“I guess that’s something we’ll see soon enough.”

Nat takes his hand and squeezes.

“Where are we?”

Nat shrugs.

“Dunno.”

“Useful.”

Nat nudges him playfully, and he grins through the tears.

“I think it’s something to do with the soul stone. If I’m here after being sacrificed, and you are after _using_ the stone, I can only assume they’re related to each other.”

“Makes sense?”

Nat snorts.

“No, it doesn’t, but we have no other theories, so it’ll suffice.”

Tony tries to figure out if he can think of an alternative, but he can’t.

“Want to go have a look around?”

“Sure,” Nat agrees. “Maybe we can find something of interest?”

Together they start to search, not sure what they’re looking for, or if they even hope to find anything. For the most part, the place seems to be either shallow water, narrow grainy walkway or vast, endless space.

Tony can’t figure out how long they’ve been walking. He doesn’t feel tired, and it both feels like he’s been walking for hours and also feels like they’ve barely even started. It’s confusing, and he wants to ask Nat if she feels the same way, but she cuts him off before she can begin.

“What’s that?”

Tony follows her pointed finger and finds a sizeable wooden pagoda. On it, stands a child. A _green_ child.

“Who is that?” Tony whispers.

“Who is who?”

Tony doesn’t pay her any more attention. A child shouldn’t be here. He rushes to her side, and she looks over at him as he approaches her. She’s a beautiful child, with intricately styled hair and strange markings on her skin. Tony finds that he doesn’t need to kneel very far to reach her height, and it makes him distantly wonder if he’s younger like Nat is.

“Who are you?” the girl asks.

“I’m Tony Stark.”

“Stark?” the girl muses. “You’re one of the Avengers. My father spoke of you.”

“You father?”

“Thanos.”

Tony recoils, and he hears Nat’s steps behind him.

“Your father is Thanos?”

Her head bobs.

“Tony, who’re you talking to?”

Both Tony and the little green girl turn to face her.

“She cannot see me,” the girl says. “She died before I did. We do not co-exist in here. We exist in different time frames. Perhaps one day, they will overlap, and she will be able to see me. Time is strange here. It does not have the same rules we are familiar with.”

“But you can see her?”

“Yes.”

Tony’s head hurts, and he can’t make sense of anything right now.

“Who are you?” he settles on. And an easy question.

“I am Gamora.”

 _I’ll do you one better._ Why _is Gamora?_

Tony sputters out a laugh. It’s not funny. It’s just… _holy shit._ Thanos had killed his own daughter to achieve his goal. He had given her to take the soul stone. It was done so willingly. As far as he understood, Nat and Clint had fought with each other, trying to stop the other from being the sacrifice. Love is what they had, not what Thanos felt for Gamora.

“He’s dead.”

Gamora’s eyes widen, and she seems to grow older before his eyes. No longer the little girl, she appears to be around twenty.

“He is dead? How?”

“We brought back those he killed,” Tony explains. “We brought them all back, and Thanos… he came forward in time with you and old Nebula.”

“Old nebula?”

“The Nebula who wasn’t on our side.”

Gamora nods, encouraging him to go on.

“Anyway, Thanos brings everyone he has to Earth, threatens to kill us all. Then, our people come. There’s this big fight. Thanos rains down explosives, and Captain Marvel shows up and destroys his ship. Then, we fight for the gauntlet. Thanos has it again, but I take the stones. I put them on my suit and –” Tony winces at the reminder of the pain, “—and I snap him and his buddies away.”

“And you died because of it?”

Tony nods.

“What’s going on, Tony?” Nat whispers.

Tony looks between the two women, and he feels so small and confused. He hates feeling like this, but the memory pushes him to his knees.

_You can rest now._

But Tony can never rest. Not now. Not knowing that his daughter is going to grow up with him there. Not knowing that Peter is going to be vulnerable when the villain’s tech outranks his own. Not knowing that everything hurts with every second he spends away from his family.

“Tony,” Nat cups his face. “Calm down.”

“But—”

“No, Tony, you need to calm down.”

Tony shakes his head, unable to find the words to explain that _he can’t calm down._ His family, he can’t look after them anymore. He— they— oh _god._

A sharp pain knocks his face to the side, and he scowls at Nat.

“Did you just slap me?”

“You were freaking out.”

“Doesn’t mean you get to hit me,” he pouts, rubbing his cheek. “What the—”

His fingers roam across his face, unable to find his beard. His skin feels softer, plumper, and now that he knows to look out for it, he feels shorter.

“Time works strangely here,” Gamora tells him.

She’s a fully-grown woman now. She looks down at him and then across to Nat.

“Your emotions affect your physical being. If you panic, you will age backwards.”

Tony nods even though it makes _no sense_.

“There’s someone else here,” he explains to Nat, hoping that talking will help drag his mind back into place. “Her name is Gamora. She is Thanos’s daughter. He sacrificed her for the stone, but it happened after you were sacrificed, chronologically at least. So, you can’t see her… but she can see you.”

“That makes no sense.”

“I know.”

Tony pulls his knees into his chest, and Nat sits beside him, leaning against his shoulder. Gamora joins them, and together they sit, staring across the abyss.

“Now what?” Tony asks.

“Now, we wait.”

“For what?”

“I don’t know," Nat admits.

“Sounds exciting.”

Nat laughs, and Gamora chuckles lightly.

 

~*~*~

 

_Three earth years later_

_or_

_Three Soul Realm hours later_

 

~*~*~

 

“Please tell me you didn’t die,” Natasha begs when Clint walks towards them with the Hulk behind him.

Clint lets out a loud whoop and grins as he runs towards her and pulls her into his arms.

“It worked.”

Clint turns to Tony and grabs him roughly, pulling him into a tight hug.

“It  _worked,_ ” he whispers again.

“What—”

“Nope. We don’t have time. Take our hands. We’re going home.”

Tony reaches out to grab Gamora’s hand and then takes Nat’s too. Clint holds onto Nat and the Hulk. The Hulk holds onto Clint and then Gamora. There’s a flash of white, and then Tony is sprawled on the floor of the Avengers compound.

 _“Tony._ ”

" _Daddy!"_

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sad about Endgame. I just needed to write something to make me feel better.
> 
> Let me know if you have any theories about Tony.


End file.
